Humanity is only “one miscalculation from nuclear annihilation,” the United Nations Secretary-General has warned. Geopolitical threats, including the climate crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic and armed conflict, are putting the world at risk of a nuclear threat not seen since the height of the Cold War, according to Antonio Guterres. “Today, humanity is only a misunderstanding, a miscalculation away from nuclear annihilation,” Guterres said at the opening of the United Nations conference on the nuclear treaty at his headquarters in New York. On Monday, International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken were among those gathered for the 10th annual review of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. “The climate crisis, stark inequalities, conflict and human rights abuses and the personal and economic devastation caused by the Covid-19 pandemic have put our world under more stress than it has faced in our lifetimes” , Guterres said. “Humanity is in danger of forgetting the lessons learned in the terrible fires of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.” Guterres added that “geopolitical tensions are reaching new highs” and “distrust has replaced dialogue.” “States seek false security in stockpiling and spending hundreds of billions of dollars on weapons that have no place on our planet.” Nearly 13,000 nuclear weapons are now in arsenals around the world, Guterres added, citing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and crises in the Middle East and the Korean peninsula as areas where nuclear tons are “going nuclear.” He listed five “areas of action” that are central to the treaty. This includes a firm commitment to strengthening and reaffirming the 77-year-old rule against the use of nuclear weapons, working towards the goal of eliminating nuclear weapons, addressing simmering tensions in the Middle East and Asia, promoting the peaceful use of nuclear technology for medical and other uses and fulfillment of all outstanding commitments in the treaty itself. “We need the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons more than ever. That’s why this review conference is so important. It’s an opportunity to collect the measures that will help avoid certain disasters.”
